Safe-Haven
by Eva Maverx
Summary: AU: All he would ever want was for her to be his again. Late oneshot for Jackunzel week.


**AN: Once again I've put too much thought into what's suppose to be a one shot :P. This is for Jackunzel week's theme Safe Haven. I realize I'm late on this but oh wells. Hope you enjoy ^_^ obviously I do not own anything. Rated T for mention of drugs and intimacy.**

"Jack!"

Hearing his favorite voice behind him Jack, wiping the corner of his mouth a third time with his thumb and spitting the last tang of blood from his lips to the sidewalk, turned to the hospital entrance. It was properly angelic when she came racing out the sliding doors that beamed light from the lobby. Giving her a glowing silhouette that enhanced her crown of hair as she raced towards him into the night, arms in a grand welcome like a toddler.

"Hey Rapunzel."

It hurt to chuckle but he still did as he hugged her harder and more lingering than just-friends dared to. Beside them a man started screaming obscenities at a security guard and Jack took hesitant steps away from the scene. But he didn't let go even then, just pulled her feet off the ground and shuffled them to the side, laughing with her as he touched her down. When she smiled brightly at him it seemed a sin to not smile back, though he tried to keep his face tilted to hide the split skin.

"What are you doing here?" Rapunzel asked, smoothing sweet pink scrubs and snapping off her I.D. badge once out of his arms.

Jack shrugged, quickly hiding marred knuckles in his hoodie's pockets. "It's been a while, thought I'd walk you home. Cause, you know, you live in the worst neighborhood." His mocking grin resembled a fabled chesire cat's and she playfully shoved his shoulder.

"Well how gallant of you good sir." She mocked shrugging her bag to her shoulder before strutting off, long braided gold swaying behind her with a life of its own. And he followed like the charmed smitten fool he was.

Conversation flowed easily as the early autumn wind swept comfortingly around them that night. Talks of Hiccup and Merida's voyage to Scotland for blessings of their relationship. If either had caught Hook's recent concert or visited Vlad's newly opened ceramic shop. Was Flynn still with that girl Amanda. Or was it Ashley?

"It won't last much longer, he keeps mentioning that no one has matched your kiss." Jack's eyes observed from their corners as an uncharacteristically maniacal Rapunzel snorted. "That's just his fail safe...he must not be that in to her and trying to get dumped if he's saying that."

He cocked a brow "Even when he's drunk he raves about that kiss."

"That's because he saw stars."

Jack smirked, "Because you punched him out right afterwards."

Queue a well recited rant of incorporeal eighth grade boy feelings, Flynn was an idiot anyway, who kisses a girl in front of the entire gym class, no means no, how dare Kuzco goad him on, and a famed new nickname of Rapunchel that stuck till junior year. It always finished with her belief that it adequately extinguished whatever doomed romance Flynn saw between them and started their beautiful friendship anyway. And Jack couldn't argue with that reasoning; they'd been going twelve years strong in that absurdly balanced companionship. Two years later Merida, Hiccup and Jack joined their ranks with some crazy initiation of sparring with frying pans; Rapunzel and Flynn still wouldn't tell them what that was about mostly because they couldn't stop laughing when asked.

Their laughter quelled a few paces later and try as he might to resemble a calm collected man the inquiry seeping in her eyes had him trying hard to keep his discomfort minimally visible. But he couldn't fool her and sure enough her eyes glinted at his own body's admission; a small but painful stutter in his breath. She stopped in front of him with a resolve on her face that he should have seen coming but she did it so quickly he couldn't turn his head in time before she cupped his chin. The delicate warmth that radiated from her hand left him pliable for her to turn his head and examine him with streetlights glow.

"Jack...your face..."

"It's fine. I just told the mugger politely that I wanted to keep my stripper money this time." She didn't laugh at the joke or return his smirk, settling him with a glum sight and reaching out to his face.

He allowed her to stroke a fingertip around the dried blood of his sore lip and sliced opening on his forehead, relishing the contact for a little more than necessary before grabbing her hand. If she minded his thumb circling the back of her hand she said nothing and he was grateful as the caress was calming to his thrumming heart. He was trying to be stubborn, resisting a little when she pulled his battered hands into the light, but as she pressed a careful hand on his ribs he couldn't quench the painful coughing fit.

She sighed heavily, muttering something incoherent but he'd bet it was something he'd already been chastised about at least once from her before. Mostly likely about his crummy neighborhood but that wasn't something he had control of at the moment; he did cheer inside that his lease was almost over and he get the hell outta there soon. Tuning back into to the wind-down of her mumblings she ended, like always, with the promise of a patch job at her place. While he saw this outcome the moment he'd hobbled towards her employment earlier, it really wasn't his goal. He'd just wanted to see her; but never complaint would pass his lips when she lead him like some lost babe by the hand.

The walk was short and into a much nicer neighborhood than Jack's, the kind with well-kept emerald lawns and cars bearing all four tires instead of wooden blocks. Jack had kept numb silence as they entered the apartment, shedding his jacket to slouch into his designated love-seat but Rapunzel never liked silence hence jingling keys in her fiddling fingers as she murmured, "My offer is still open..."

Ah, the ever tantalizing proposal that she'd spoken of six times prior now. Reigning desperate urges to holler yes until his lungs caved in was a difficult task. Yes to taking up her spare room and being roommates so he could moon over her in the comfort of their shared space but Jack took the nobler and painful road.

"Won't that upset Daniel?"

There wasn't any point to hide the bite on his tongue when saying her 'boyfriends' name. It wasn't meant for her and she was aware of Jack's disdain for the man, so she waved her hand dismally, "I gave up on him, haven't tried to talk to him in about two weeks now."

Some would find offense with her offhandedly attitude about her beaus but Jack found, with overwhelming relief, that it was how she'd treated all these short relations. None had any potential of being permanent and she made it clear to them from the condemned start. All of them were douche bags in his and their friend's opinions and usually just a stubborn dunce who'd pestered Rapunzel enough to agree in a predictably boring date. A week or two later she'd be driven crazy by their advances and end it; Jack's stifling presence when around didn't help their cases.

They were only distractions for reasons that Rapunzel thought was known to only her. But they all knew why and collectively lamented about her unconscious and futile effort to not think about it; because what she was trying to avoid as sitting inevitably in her apartment.

Jack.

"Besides since when did you care about not upsetting him?"

"I don't, it's fun." Also no point in hiding his snarky grin that she actually returned with a smirk and cute wrinkle in her nose that he wanted to nip at. When she kept staring him down he saw the implied repeated question and gave a shrug that rolled his neck.

"I'll think about it."

She'd never heard anything different so she smiled sadly before saying she'd return and disappeared quickly towards her room to shed scrubs and don usual lounge clothes. Alone for those few moments Jack inhaled the clean lilac aroma in what was his loosely undisclosed shelter from life. It wasn't just the pale sky tinted walls with cloud white accents of fluffy pillows, curtains and overstuffed furniture that released a little of his shouldered weight.

It was Rapunzel.

He could be in a cardboard box but if she was there...things were bearable.

When she came back Jack bit the inside his cheek to stop a smile that would blare how happy he was to see her wearing a shirt that had once belonged to him. Shaking waves free of thick braids Rapunzel started prattling about her shift; some poor soul had stumbled into the ambulance bay drunker than St. Patrick's Day and a little girl managed to stick a whole quarter up her nose. Jack never responded but she didn't expect him to since she was simply unloading the day from her own chest; it was a practice she'd had all throughout their long ago relationship. While she mistook his unwavering gaze as thoughtful to her one-sided conversation Jack was free to read fine print between the lines she wasn't aware she was even writing.

It glimpsed in the way his faded Skillet band t-shirt complimented her petite frame and well-worn jeans that had seen better days with him many late nights years ago.

It whispered through her daily practiced hand that took to cleaning and dressing his wounds with an above and beyond tender care before ruffling his dyed white hair in jest.

It spoke in the way she set a pink cupcake from Attila's before him without needing to ask to add a glass of ice water, mostly ice, in his hand, and sitting next to him.

It laughed with her own amusement at his very poor impersonation, that no one else but her found funny, of Hiccup's cat Toothless when it ate fish.

And when he stuffed the last large bite of delectable diabetes in his mouth, it screamed with her next ingrained action.

"Delicious as always." He managed once swallowing.

Rolling her eyes Rapunzel reached out, startling Jack as she swept her finger over his sore lip to wipe away a cluster of candy pink. The gesture sent a hot ping rattling around his stomach. It was something they'd always use to do in the early honeymoon stage of their romance; he'd eat sloppy just so she'd feel inclined to clean him and let him pick apart her mother complex with a foxy grin.

He wondered if she realized how easy she was laying herself out to read. She probably didn't, Punz was never aptly aware of her how loudly her actions spoke, but he was still listening. Listening and more than eager to shout back.

As she pulled away his lips wrapped around her frosted finger, suckling till all the sugar dissolved in his mouth, before letting the digit slide away. As their gazes clashed the magnetic pull in her green moved him towards her flushed face. But when the move tweaked his chest and he couldn't stop the grunt of pain she blinked, his spell gone and she got doused in their cold reality.

He winced when she gathered the plates in shaky hands making the ceramic clank in protest as she deposited them uncaring in the sink that she now gripped tightly to right herself. "Jack..."

Up faster than she predicted he caged her to the counter with his steel arms and a dense silence fell when they both relived certain recognition. Pinning her in this fashion use to bring the burning vow of sweat lustrous skin, fluttering gasps and long heavy hours in a bed back in their younger days. As he could visibly see those memories come roaring back through her she became very still, trying to suppress needy trembles.

"Punz.."

She whimpered when he spoke, her hands distracting themselves in her ridiculously long hair.

"I'm done pretending that I don't notice."

"Notice what?" Torn between smirking at her innocent bluff or snapping for her to give up hiding Jack settled on a sigh, taking a small prize in her shiver from his breath. He was still prideful that he could affect her so drastically. Inhaling deeply once and waiting for a bravery that only came when his face pillowed in the gathered hair of the crook of her neck he spoke in a deep voice, "That you still love me."

Predictably she stiffened and he already heard some silly concoction of an excuse start, "Jack-"

"I know I'm about five years late but please just let me explain." He interrupted, pressing into her back. It'd been so long since he'd had the pleasure and permission to be this close with her and the desire to own it again drove him to speak.

"I broke up with you because of Gothel."

The words dropped like a stone, letting his shoulders slump and his head rested between her shoulder blades where he struggled to assimilate his thoughts.

"Senior year one day, she said told me to break up with you or she wouldn't let you go to college." Years later thinking of Rapunzel's caregiver still had the power to make him want to spew uncensored rage. Even if everything after that day had been his choice Jack could still justly blame a bit of it on that disgusting woman.

"W-why would she? I knew she didn't like you, I mean she didn't like anyone but-"

"She found my pills." It felt like several teeth cracked with how hard he was grinding them to ease into this needle pit.

She was quiet, waiting for him to continue, and while there's relief that she's willing to listen he's more frightened to tell her. Say it, he chided, say it now while the wound is open and you actually have the guts to do it.

"She was rummaging in my bag. She found my antidepressants and some Xanax and Valiums that Tyler had pushed on me the day before. I'd forgotten to get rid of them and it just helped fuel her."

Even now years later Jack wanted to hold some benevolence towards that boy, Tyler. But it was ill placed blame and didn't lessen his own guilt any; he was friends with the a few misguided kids back then and sometimes couldn't muster up a simple no to them.

"Picking you up one day she cornered me, going on about how I was some drug addict that could never give you anything you wanted in life."

Breathe. He reminded himself to breathe as Gothel's sharp voice still played on repeat in his ears.

"I swear Rapunzel that I didn't do any drugs during school. I was prescribed antidepressants when I was fifteen and that's all I took. But after graduation and you left..."

And just like that his whole oily black past purged out his mouth and soul.

Dropping out of college when the thought of getting anywhere in his failing life was laughable. Weeks when leaving the bed was like asking to walk into an inferno with legs wrapped in barbwire. The obscene number of times he tried to call her before his insides would freeze to make him toss the phone away and cry himself to sleep. Deadened nights that bleed into months of missing memories with an array of strange faces and plastic goodie bags. Alienating his family with his erratic behavior; even his sweet sister that he screamed vulgarism till his face was blue and her's white. Brushing death's hand after a chanced eavesdrop of Merida mentioning Rapunzel being kissed by someone other than him. Waking up to be severely and justly beaten by Flynn and Merida; Hiccup gave a strong worded lecture with deep threats that he'd never doubt were for show. All finally ending in the last few years of being clean and pushing back the puzzle pieces of his crumpled life with the help of his friends.

The rest acted out privately in his mind. Rapunzel moving back a year after the hospital but it was several months before Jack got the courage to reach out with cupcakes and a tentative plead for friendship. It had been like no time had passed between them as she punched his shoulder and hugged tighter than a vice to call him an idiot. He vowed to keep his tainted years away from her until the time was right, if it ever would be.

While he couldn't deny how much of a terrifying relief it was to finally tell the woman he loved the darkest part of his life, he was still scared. What would she say?

"That bitch."

Jack was startled enough to pull away and gape at the girl who had never cursed. The closest she'd gotten to swearing was after an incident involving a death-defying sledding accident freshman year that ended in a frozen pond. Even then she'd only said fudge nuts and laughed for an hour.

Turning to face him she didn't look amused now, more like she'd just swallowed glass shards. "I never told you Jack..."

Why did he feel like he wouldn't like whatever she was about to tell him? Thinking it would help encourage he took her smaller hand, entwining their fingers and giving a small squeeze that she returned.

Rapunzel took a deep breath then started. "I left Gothel. As in I packed all that I could, put it in my car and drove till I ran out of gas."

Pulling absent-mindedly at her hair she chuckled weakly, "She blew up one day, saying I'd never be allowed to leave and I was stupid to think I could make it into any nursing program." For a moment she shuddered as if about to cry but she rushed back in before it could start. "So I left after graduation. Only way I was able to get by at first was from a trust fund that my parents had left me, Gothel had never told me about of course."

The blaring pound of blood rushing in his ears was almost enough to deafen. A thousand ways to ruin the woman who was the dismay of their love piled up in his mind while one reoccurring line screeched particularly loud.

He'd broken up with her for nothing. The hell that had been his life without her the past five years didn't have to happen. He had let her go...

"I've kept decently out of her range and been able to move before she finds me. It's not like she can go to the cops saying I've run away but still. She hasn't bothered me since I've moved back, yet."

Letting go of his hand she held his face gently, thumbs tracing his cool cheeks and pinkies lining his strained neck. "But I knew Jack, I saw the pills in high school and just wanted to wait for you to tell me."

Age old fear and panic rushed up his body tensing him but before he could pull away Rapunzel tightened her hands, holding him still as she continued quickly.

"When you said you wanted to break up, I thought it's what you wanted. Maybe the relationship was stressing you and it'd have been better for you to end it. I was screaming inside but I said okay. Maybe the space would be good for you.." She grimaced, jaw clenching before her tongue swept dry lips to continue.

"Flynn kept me up to date on you all these years. He knew about my situation and suggested I stay away incase Gothel found out and worsened it. But I was there...at the hospital when you ODed."

Tears flowed down her cheeks and it was hurting him to look but he willed himself to not move even a muscle. "You were so out of it, you didn't know who I was." A tightness in his chest that he knew couldn't be blamed on broken bones worked up this throat.

She had seen him, at the lowest and vilest point of his existence, she'd seen him and was still here. She couldn't have been any more beautiful, standing before him with that knowledge, in his t-shirt and the most loving expression on her face.

"You mean all this time...you've known." His voice broke painfully soft with the amount of emotions that were pressing into him that only she could solicit. "And you still love me." It was a statement, not a question though it left him in blinding wonderment like one.

Laughter cracked with the tease of wet sobs that choked her throat as she tried to speak clearly, "You make it sound like I could stop."

Grabbing and pulling her arms harder than needed Jack held Rapunzel against his solid aching chest and kissed her. Lips and tongue took from her mouth as if it was a kingdom to be conquered. Plundering this sweet treasure he'd been to long without. The hands trapped between them grasped headily at his shirt as she moaned into him. A madness of gluttony was creeping up his body as he kept taking more and more with no sign of letting her go. He took every word, moan, mewl and breath in those wonderland minutes.

When his cool fingers bunched up her shirt to streak dangerously along the sloop of her smaller curved back she pulled away.

"Jack you-"

"What?" He gasped, fighting the strong impulse to lure her back by staring in forest green eyes.

"I.."

She got lost in the blue expanse of his eyes, what ever she had planned to say flew away with her breath. Then her face flooded with panic and she dashed quicker than silver from him and down the hallway. He couldn't keep up and the bathroom door clicked locked in his face, seconds later the shower roared to life.

Jack laughed in relief and ruffled his hair with hands that were shaking in the past rush of adrenaline. Another custom that was rather amusing of Punz's was showering when conflicted. She'd spend hours under the waterfall and coming out to smell of flowers and literally glittering, claiming water always clears her mind. It was how she'd settled the month-long debate about lending Eugene money to give him a leg up on his dream of modeling. The answer was no.

So he settled down by the door and waited patiently, a few minutes to an hour was pennies compared to what the last five years had made him pay. He'd also had to show her that running from him was pretty pointless now.

After an unaccounted amount of time the water finally turned off and he jumped to his feet, fidgeting nervously as he listened to her waste time behind the door. Ten minutes spent later he heard her sigh and open the door slowly. Stunned as he was seeing her wet and wrapped in a towel he stood straight to speak with all his sincerity in his voice.

"Punz, please-"

She cut him off in a quick whisper, worrying her plump lips to the point he almost neglected what she was actually saying. "Are you sure Jack? Is a relationship really what's best for you right now?

Wanting more than anything to kiss those reddening lips, showing that her doubts had no real merit, he nodded. As thoughtful as she was to still hold his well-being in such a high regard those musings were quiet the opposite of what his prosperity needed. He needed her, fully in his possession.

"Nothing could be better for me than you Punz. I know it was hard for us the first time and I'm not going to lie and say it's not going easy this time around. But please, let us try again."

"Jack of all people to listen to about your self-worth you believed Gothel." There was an uncommon simmer of anger bubbling in her voice and eyes. "I would have given up everything to stay with you and you should have known that. I wouldn't have cared about college, your depression, Gothel or anything else! But the woman who belittled me my entire life, locked me away half of it and tried to keep us apart is the one you listened to! She knows nothing about you yet you let her tell you what you had to offer!"

Her musical voice was screaming, something that would happen once in a horrible blue moon, in such desperation and fury he didn't know how to calm her. Feeling useless in he raised his hands in the motions of an embrace what was too scared to touch her, begging with his face for her to relax and pleading with his words,

"I swear I won't let anyone convince me otherwise ever again."

He tried to smile reassuringly but his nerves wouldn't let it go farther than one upturned corner so he settled on a hand's caress against her blushing cheek.

"All I have to offer is me."

She looked heartbroken and he stopped any words she may have had with a long slender finger to her perfect lips.

"But I can promise you that's all you'll ever need. If you believe in me and that promise Punz... leave your door open tonight."

With another smile attempt that was anything but confident he passed her to take refugee in the bathroom. Once the door closed he struggled to not collapse against it, adrenaline courage filtering away to leave him the anxious mess he truly was.

To distract himself from the soul ripping confession moments ago he shed the day's soiled clothes, stopping to examine the dark stained skin where his rib's had been kicked. His fingers played around its ugly edges, consoling his healing pride that the other guy looked worse, just as the faint click of a door pierced the silent hallway outside. He froze, terrified that he'd imagined the sound and praying he did. Opening the door as quietly as possible he peeked out and a shattering breath stung his mouth when he saw her door was closed.

Mechanically closing the bathroom, stepping in the shower and turning the water on Jack fell apart under the arctic torrent of water. The water was biting frigid and didn't aid to wash his tears away but at least muffled his sobs. He spent an imagined eternity crumpled and depleted as he felt his life tear apart once again; he tried to reprimand the weakness but he truly felt too broken to attempt.

When his throat was raw from subduing the wails and his skin was far past being able to quake he turned the water off and got dressed. In matter of seconds the clothes were soaked through but he didn't care, his mind to busy falling into it's self-destructive pattern. He didn't remember opening the door or stepping into the hallway because when he looked up his lungs clenched.

Her door was now cracked open a breathless fraction.

Hesitant with belief and a little doubt that he may be hallucinating Jack slowly pushed the door open to flood the dark room with the bathroom light. Sitting up right on her bed of downy and silk purples Rapunzel was awake and staring intensely at him. So stunned by this his feet stumbled on her discarded towel and he lurched in a clumsy manner onto the bed.

He crawled hands and knees, never looking away from her inviting green, and didn't stop until their noses brushed. Drops of water still clung to her skin and hair that dripped on the sheet she clutched to her naked body. He couldn't say anything, every time he tried his throat clenched a small bemoan of noise. So he asked with his wide eyes and a craving hand upon her neck.

"Jack." Her smile was beautiful and her eyes took in every part of his appearance as if for the first time.

"All I've ever needed all these years is you...I've just been waiting for you to let me in."

He stared for only a moment before the meaning of her words fainted him a top of her. His face pressing into the swell of her chest as they both took deep breaths to stop the weeping that wasn't welcome in this treasured moment. Hands sought out the others face and pulled them together to kiss open-mouthed and deeply. Her fingers fumbled to pull off his wet clothes since they stuck to him like a colder thick second skin and he eventually had to release her mouth to assist. Once free of everything she ushered him under the covers, hissing lustfully as his ice-like body crashed onto her warmer skin with a youthful urgency.

Kissing lightly even through the ache in his mouth Jack trailed along her pulsating jaw line to hover low on her bust. He teased her daringly by brushing his lips in phantom touches on the shuddering skin before sparing a moment to look back at her face.

Even smiling as lovingly as Rapunzel was she still looked troubled with that scant fear that dwindled in his own heart. So he kissed her devotedly until she returned it passionately then spent the residual of the night and some of the morning reassuring her mind, heart and body that she'd made the right choice. And when morning broke them Jack bathed in happiness that after years of painful separation his body finally reunited with his heart in his personal safe-haven that was Rapunzel.

_fin_

**Hope some people enjoyed this, once again a bit of me died trying to write this :P**


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